Northwoods Bass Fishing Report – Mid to Late May 2025
We just completed two weeks worth of smallmouth trips. I'm tired of hot weather, cold weather, poor weather, cold fronts, quitters, and uncooperative fish. In the last week, I also had 1 canceled trip, 1 no-show, and two other days in which anglers gave up. 4 days of lost work - this cannot happen in May. Understandably I'm just tired, I'm not happy that half the month felt wasted, and was glad to return home a few days ago.
And as you know, weather affects the smallmouth in a variety of positive and negative ways. It also negatively affects anglers too.
May month was a tale of two halves. The first half of May consisted of nearly two weeks of 80-degree days with sunshine. Smallmouth fishing was excellent until the heat waves made them want to spawn everywhere by mid month. My first report of the month highlighted all of that, and fishing was on fire. By mid month, smallmouths were quickly digging out nests and it appeared the pre-spawn window was rapidly closing.
Then the second half of May was the complete opposite. Starting May 17th, we got hit with a massive week-long cold front that sent all those shallow water and actively feeding smallmouth